Excerpts From: A Wonderful Life, In Review
by Octavian
Summary: Excerpts from Calvin's Autobiography: A Wonderful Life, In Review. Chapter 4 Pt I up. Sorry for delay.
1. Forward

Legal Note: I do not own Calvin and Hobbes. I do not own any such book written by a man named Calvin, which has a title dubbed: **_A Wonderful Life, In Review_**. Author's Note: These set of stories and chapters are fantasized excerpts from an imaginary book written by a future, aged Calvin from _Calvin and Hobbes_. All of this has been written by myself, and it is my view of a life Calvin might lead in his future life. Read, Review, and Enjoy. 

Excerpts from Calvin's Autobiography: **_A Wonderful Life, In Review_**

**Forward from Calvin**

My life has been full of wonderful events. These events happen to be full of elation, sadness, misery, laughter, love, imagination, warm cups of coffee on a rainy morning, arguments with my wife, the crying of grandchildren, and many more things that have shaped my life into what I believe as perfect. The Trail starts with birth, every year, and every change in my thoughts, life, and emotions steers me off onto a new path. Though I am now retired, and I am living a lax life, I am still extending my Trail. I've already passed the scenery, and the milestones. I accomplished all my goals I set out to accomplish. The forest has yet to end, so I can pass with tranquility to my reward. But looking back into the forest I have shed light on, I see more bumps, dead ends, and fallen bridges than ever. I know I will see a few more.

One thing I must credit my parents for all that they did in their long life. Being an only child was just as hard for them as it was for parents who had 7 children. They taught with strong values, virtues, and responsibility. They taught wisdom with wisdom, discipline with discipline. And, my dad was always famous for his accursed lessons in character. My greatest regret is that this book was not published in their lifetime. I still respect them the most at the age of 65. And I will never forget them. Never.

I've written this book so my children already, grown and matured; my grandchildren, learning the basics of reading; and my future kin and family, somewhere not of this world will someday read this and learn that life is what you make of it, and the possibilities are endless. But I wish that all who read this, not kin of my family, will learn the same lessons that I have taught, and still teach my children. 

May you go in peace, Calvin 

Author's Note: Don't worry, the next chapters will have more of Calvin. This is just the forward, and gives hints about how he will end up, and what he has done in his lifetime.


	2. Early Life: Six Years Old

**Early Childhood**

My childhood was the most imaginative and creative times of my life. Especially being 6 years old. That year seemed like ten years as I remember living through it. 

The biggest part of my 6 year old life was a stuffed tiger named Hobbes. We were inseparable. He had been mine since around one or two years old. My parents gave it to me as a gift. My dad insisted a lot back then, that he should have bought a dog, a dachshund. But I thank him for giving me Hobbes, because Hobbes was the best thing that ever happened. 

Hobbes was a stuffed, orange, blacked striped tiger. To me now, he looks that way, but when I was young, he was alive. He was my best friend, and I would talk to him and he would reply. We had many adventures such as riding sleds or wagons down in the woods. We crashed countless times, but that's always when we would seriously talk to each other. I also remember camping, and going to the zoo and museums with him countless times. There were also times when he would pounce on me when I got home from school. But like all friends, we would occasionally fight with each other and sometimes hurt each other. 

The two children I can remember the most at my early age were a boy and a girl. Their names were Moe and Susie Derkins. Moe was just a plain bully. I remember getting knocked by him millions of times, and the teachers never noticed. I usually had some insults for him, but that was usually why he punched me in the first place. He was as stupid as he was big. Susie, on the other hand was a smart, annoying girl in my class. She always got me in trouble, but through first grade she didn't avoid the one thousand spit balls. She also lived near my house, so it was possible to torture her even more when we weren't in school, by the means of G.R.O.S.S. 

G.R.O.S.S. was a club that Hobbes and I started to pester any girl. G.R.O.S.S. stood for Get Rid Of Slimy girlS. It makes me chuckle when I look back on it now, how I used the S at the end of girls. I was the Dictator-For-Life in the group. I was also a lot of other positions which I forgot. Hobbes and I made up the full membership of G.R.O.S.S. It was always fun to devise plans that would be almost impossible to accomplish. 

The thing that makes me laugh the most these days are my alter-egos. They were Stupendous Man, Spaceman Spiff, and Tracer Bullet. I always use them to change the situation so I could win, because I had powers I didn't have as "Mild Mannered Calvin." But, I usually never won the battles. Stupendous Man was like a Superman spoof. I would go change into a cap with a mask, and fly off to fight my parents, who always seemed to change into villains. Spaceman Spiff was my alter-ego that would explore dangerous parts of the galaxy. His adventures would usually end up crashing, trapped, or escaping aliens. Tracer Bullet was a private eye who snooped around and looked for clues. He makes me laugh because I would pretend to have a real bottle of alcohol and a gun, which was a dart gun. 

As a kid I was never a good student, I had poor grades. I did have pressure from parents to get better grades and to be better at math. I always ignored it and went to talk to Hobbes about it. But the greatest pressure from my dad was to build character. It was the worst thing in the world. Building character could vary from shoveling snow to camping on a deserted island in the middle of nowhere in the pouring rain. But I think that he was doing the best thing as a father to help me build myself, even though it killed me. 

Again, the sixth year of my life was very important to me. I seem to remember it the most, and I still get life lessons from just looking back on some of the past events, such as the Noodle Incident. 


	3. Teenage Years

**Teenage Years**

Living as a teenager was doing the stupidest and yet most fun things. I had become more mature than when I was a little kid. But not in my parents eyes. I still remember driving them up the wall when trying to wash dishes or doing laundry.

I was keeping up my guitar lessons and practicing almost every night when I was supposed to be doing homework. I was getting pretty good, and I remember trying to start a band, which proved to be unsuccessful. A little bit of keyboard and piano took up my time when I wasn't playing the guitar, but I always preferred the guitar.. I couldn't find another guitarist good enough, and no one would write songs. But I wrote songs in my sleep. Sometimes they would be short five word songs or long drawn out lyrics. I always wrote how I felt, and about lost friends, which no doubt, came from the loss of Hobbes. When he was put into the attic.

I was never into sports, but I could run fast. The track coaches wanted me to run the 100 meter race. I never did run, but organized sports always reminded me of Calvinball.

There were always flashbacks of my imaginative life. One day, I was in the supermarket with Mom, and we saw Roslyn. She had a husband, Charlie, who was her boyfriend in high school. She said hi, and was expecting a baby soon. I joked in my head how the child might grow to hate her, but that was because I had such bad memories as a child. When I started 6th grade, I learned that Ms. Wormwood was retiring, and I went to the retirement party. It was fun and brought back old memories of her 1st grade class. Right before I left, she told me I was actually one of her favorite students because of my spontaneous behavior which was funny when looked back on. Sometimes after these types of events, I would climb up in the tree house where Hobbes and I used to hold G.R.O.S.S. meetings to get rid of Susie. I would always fall asleep daydreaming in that tree house.

The funniest memories were the times Dad and I went out to drive in an abandoned parking lot. He kept recalling the time I wrecked the car by pushing it out of the driveway. At first it was scary to be behind the wheel of Dad's car, but I got better. He also always kept complaining how his insurance would be driven up when I was 16 and driving. Every time he started saying that, I was played a joke with him by accelerating fast. He would become mad, then start to laugh. Those were good times. And when my 16th birthday came, I was presented with my license and a dumpy two door car. But when I was 16, it wasn't dumpy, being in it was heaven. I soon realized, with money I made by working at the music store, I could fix the car up. I drove that car everywhere, even down the street and back if I was bored.

The best times I had in a car was one summer when I was bored, I drove to the beach. With no cash, or clothes. I got there, and I slept in the car, and came back the day. I recall telling the story to my friends, but they didn't find it interesting. But somehow, that trip gave me the feeling that I was more independent than I had ever been in my life.

I remember my high school life was filled with girls. I never got into any serious relationships. But I remember my first kiss was in the 9th grade hall, when school let out of snow. There were times when I would play hooky to go out with my friends and go to the movies or something. Susie was just a friend I still liked to pester every once in awhile. But, some friends got into drugs. I wasn't a genius, but I knew that drugs were bad, especially after one party filled with drinking and drugs. Some guy who was high and drunk almost killed me, twice. I was walking and he tripped in front of me. He got back up, and started hitting me. Luckily, I was saved by my girlfriend. The second time was when I was leaving in my car. Backing out of the driveway he almost ran over me. I never knew if it was intentional or just bad luck for me, but I steered clear of that guy.

My studies and grades weren't improving with the years. All the practice with the guitar would almost make me fail 7th grade. By my Sophomore year, I realized that I wanted to go to college and major in music and do that with a scholarship. The only classes I ever did well in were Band and Music Theory. I was taking some advanced math, and a lot of science, but I had to pull those up. I had to ration many things to get better grades; Guitar, and friends. But, I soon realized that if I put everything into it, I improved my grades to As and Bs. Things became easier, and I did have more time for guitar and my friends. 

Being a Senior in high school was the best school year of my life. I had recently completed a CD with some recordings of my songs and music. The CDs went to all my closest friends to listen to, and they liked it. School work turned out to be easier. I they best in the school when it came to guitar. And one day in May, I received a letter from a small college in New England that I had been awarded a 2 year scholarship for Music and a small 500 dollar scholarship for academics. I immediately accepted, and took a tour of the college a few weeks later. It was the perfect college for me. My parents said they would manage the last two years of the four years, and graduate school if I decided to go that far.

That summer while I was packing, I was looking over the house to find stuff I had overlooked to bring to college. I went up to the attic and started looking through boxes and found Hobbes. For one second, I thought I saw him smile at me. I picked him up, and brought him along to college to live in my dorm. I went around and said goodbye to all of my friends that I had in high school, and I drove to college with only Hobbes on my mind. 


	4. College Pt I

a/n: Sorry for the poor chapter, I haven't had too many great Ideas and much time. I decided to split College into two parts. Thank you. 

**College**

College was very different from what I expected. The first week, it was hard for me to get up for my 8:00 class. And driving around the campus was never a pleasant way to get to my classes. I quickly spent all of my 500 dollars of scholarship money on a bike to ride around campus. 

My roommate was a guy from around the area, but too far away to commute to school. We almost had the same interests. He played piano a lot, and enjoyed writing music. I would be hilarious when I would walk into the room, and he would be trying to write a song, but I would interrupt him. We became really good friends, and eventually wrote songs together. Then on Friday nights, once or twice a month, we would go down to the local club and sing. 

During the summers, I came home and wrote songs, and worked at the local art shop. When I first worked there, I had easily become annoyed by the colorful paintings and pictures. I would have much rather worked in the music shop, though. As weeks passed in the shop, I grew to like the paintings, and started to enjoy being in the shop. One day, I just became inspired and started an oil painting. It all came totally out of memory, and it came to be a large tree, and many other trees and such around it. I looked at it, and realized that something was missing, and I painted a small stuffed tiger leaning on the trunk of the tree. The painting was displayed in the shop window, and when I was asked what it was named, I just replied, "Lost Friend." And even when I look at it today, I know it is Hobbes. 

Soon, in one year of college, I found myself abusing alcohol. Almost every night I would come to the dorm drunk and with a headache. I seriously considered dropping out of college. 

One morning though, I woke up miserable, so I didn't go to class. I rummaged around the room trying to find medicine to cure the headache. I came to a box, I forgot I had, and peeked in, and I almost jumped. 

Hobbes was there, staring at me, with a faint smile, and he spoke to me. I can't remember what he said, but I received a new attitude at that moment, and conquered my alcohol abuse. I was physically a new man. 


	5. College Pt II

a/n: Long time, no chapter. Here it is. 

**College Part II**

Senior year was probably the best college year of my life. With a new hope in my life to accomplish more, I found everything easy. I ran track for college, and became a Conference champion with my relay team. My major was still in Music and my minor was for if I wanted to go back and complete a Masters or Doctorate Degree in years to come. 

But the greatest thing that happened came in the fall of the year when my old Roommate and I re-recoreded my old album I made in High School. We made a great album with old and new songs. The album was made even better with the technology and effects added to the album. We felt really proud, but I didn't know that after we recorded, my roommate had sent in the C.D. for a review to a big recording company. The day the letter finally arrived, I had no idea of what it was until my roommate told me. 

Considering I was shocked, I was over joyed about making it a step closer to the "big time." Over the Christmas holiday, we both drove down to New York and met with the record company. I had been so pessimistic on the way down of how they would reject it as soon as we got there. Surprisingly, they enjoyed it and said it could do very well, with a few modifications of course, and some advertisement. 

The last semester of my undergraduate year was filled with anticipation. The record would come out in June, and it would probably do very well. I had only 3 classes to take for a whole week, and Spring break was coming up. It would be one of the last times I could be with my friends until we all graduated and went our own way. The plan had been to go to the Grand Cayman Islands, but our limited budgets cancelled the trip. Well, the trip was cancelled until I had the brilliant idea that we take tents and sleep on the beach. It turned out that the trip was great anyway, and we all enjoyed ourselves for at least one great last time. 

Graduation Day came, with joy and tears. As the sky was blocked out by a multitude of flying graduation caps, I realized I did what I thought I could not have 8 years before.... 

A week after I returned to my parents house to choose my next path, the recording company had called. The album had done all it had been expected to so far. The titles and the rights of the songs had be sucessfully given to my partner and myself. I quickly found my bank account with more money every time I visited the ATM. 

Following that event, I moved to a small town in Conneticiut, close to work, far from the city hassle, and some time on my hands. 


End file.
